Late nights with your editor

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Seriously, how many monitors do I need on my desk to work?

Last night was round 3 (I think) of changes to the 'Bite' edit with Chad Archibald (director) sitting in on the session. How late did we go? Well...I saw the sun come up as my head hit my pillow.

It helps when the director comes with a list of changes and then we spend time going through them right there. No trying to communicate back and forth via an ever-growing email thread. Just tackling all of the changes immediately and discussing them as we went.

Only occasionally would we have to pause and talk about a certain change to the timeline that he wanted. It's healthy to have a different point-of-view looking at your movie. We would chat about how to re-arrange some scenes to make the entire movie flow better, using alternate takes of actor's performances and look at which moments of the movie were no longer needed and belonged on the cutting-room floor.

There's more work to yet be done once the movie gets seen by other pairs of eyes. Until then I could really use a strong, kick-in-the-face coffee.

Getting ready to sink my editing teeth into BITE

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This week production begins on a new horror feature from the Black Fawn Films team. The title is Bite and this one is going to get under your skin!

The director has asked for secrecy to be maintained on this one, but I've been given the go-ahead to post the teaser banner (above) and to say that this one will involve a lot of awesome, creepy special effects.

“While on her bachelorette party getaway, Katie, the bride to be, gets a seemingly harmless bite from an unknown insect. After returning home with cold feet, Katie tries to call off her wedding but before she’s able to, she starts exhibiting insect like traits. Between her physical transformation and her wedding anxiety, Katie succumbs to her new instincts and begins creating a hive that not only houses her translucent eggs, but feeds on the flesh of others. As her transformation becomes complete, Katie discovers that everything can change with a single bite.”

Once again I'll be editing on-location, transcoding footage and syncing audio while delivering scenes to the director. While the details of the film must remain hush-hush, I'll be posting regularly here about the editing process. So if you want to see a behind-the-scenes look at editing a feature on-location, then follow Merc on Twitter or Facebook to be notified of posts when they go up.

Even though I come from a visual effects background, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to be working with the BFF clan where they place so much emphasis on achieving their horror effects in production rather than relying on post. The special effects make-up will be done by The Brothers Gore, who were the same twisted gents who brought the monstrous villain to life in The Drownsman.

Let the games begin! See you in post.

Do you want to see STARS? Making a lyric video for Sixx:A.M.

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Lots of updates from the past couple of months of work. This one was a doozey!

Lyric videos are very popular this year and bands are requesting them more and more lately. This is partly because they can often be made completely with text animation and motion graphics. No filming required.

This request for Sixx:A.M. came in from Black Fawn Films and three 30-second design concepts were pitched to see which would be the best fit for the song. This concept was approved and we were off.

This one was a blast to make and the song continues to run through my head after finishing it.

Check out Sixx:A.M.'s new album on iTunes. It's good listenin'! Most mornings I kick the day off by blasting the speakers with it. Gets you moving for sure.

Looking to get a lyric video made for your band? CONTACT ME with your song and concept (if you have one) to get a quote for yours.